Momma's gotta a brand new bag!

I finished the bag this weekend. I'd like to say that I really enjoyed making it but it was nerve racking! I did the fusible backing and that was the best, thank you all for that tidbit of wisdom I appreciate it. I cut my weaving with minimal weaving fallout and that was a relief. Would I make another bag after this venture? For sure, after I finished and looked at my bag I thought that wasn't so bad, some tense moments but all in all it came out really nice and I already enjoyed using it on Saturday night. The DD even said she thought it was really cute and might borrow it, so I'd say it was a successful project. The first pic is of the woven fabric pre-cutting with the fusible interfacing on. This is a shot of the fabric cut and ready to be sewn, it was thick and my poor sewing machine had some snags with it.Sewn and ready to finish with strap and button, I also hemstitched at the beginning and end of each weave for extra stability.Woven interior prior to ironing.Finished and ready for a night out on the town!
This bag was created with help from this tutorial at Lisa Lam's http://www.u-handbag.com/

website, if you haven't been there please visit it's a great site.

Old Weaving, New Weaving and Some Storage for Good Measure

For those of you who are always looking for neat storage ideas. I found these plastic storage boxes at BJ's Wholesale, they were $ 4.95 for two, they are reusable and can hold a lot of yarn. Trust me I fill both up, they're a great bargain for all that they can hold and when not being used can collapse to fit under the bed or the back of a closet with minimal space a plus all around in my book.

Weaving this last week had been slow, I was unmotivated by the warp I had on the loom I tried to experiment with the warp and it really did not live up to my expectations, I wove it off and gifted it to my Mom, she of course loved it so it wasn't a total loss, she says the colors are happy and really sunny. This was to be the dish towels to compliment the place mats I did a few posts back, but I just wasn't really into the whole thing.

I had finished the inkle straps and cut them into 13.5" lengths to weave into fabric for a summer purse. I started last night and I really like what I see.

The first pic is of the front and the second is of the back side, which was fun to see as I crawl under my loom. I read somewhere, I'm sure from someones blog that they keep a mirror with them as they weave to check the underside of the fabric as it goes along. *note to self must get said mirror* I think I will weave this fabric off rather quickly since I feel really excited by it. I'm starting to think of how I will stabilize the straps to sew the purse together. I had some great comments a while back from my eyeglass purse mishap, about using fusible interfacing to fuse my material before cutting and sewing, I checked with my mom,"super seamstress" and she has a ton of this stuff in her wonderfully over stuffed magic fabric closet. She said she told me so the first time and I didn't listen, but really I don't remember the conversation, (mother/daughter selective hearing was turn on) this time I'm listening cause if I mess up this fabric I'm going to be depressed for a month.

Inkle Bands

I've been working on my inkle loom and making these bands. I have three so far each measure 60" in length and are 3/4" thick. My concept for these is to weave them together to make a purse, I think I will need at least six to seven bands with handles and all. I'm going to start cutting them and hemming them this weekend hopefully I'll not encounter any problems there.

New Toy and Some Weaving

I got an inkle loom that was a great deal on Ebay. Since I didn't know if I was going to really enjoy weaving on it I didn't want to spend a lot. Well, I love it! what an interesting gadget, warping had it's challenges, but once I got through it, I started weaving. So far I only started today at lunch, since I can take the loom home just yet, ( I have to figure out how to tell DH that I bought yet another weaving loom, hehe).

Warped and started.

Side view of the warped inkle.

Close up of the strip.

I have two 3oz skeins of this particular yarn and want to finish it on something so I'll be weaving strips until it's gone. But I have a plan for the strips - your gonna love this, I plan to then take the strips and weave them into fabric for a bag.